different between ravine vs crevasse

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French ravin (“a gully”), from Old French raviner (“to pillage, sweep down, cascade”), from ravine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rap?na (cf. rapine).

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?-v?n?, IPA^(key): /???vi?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n

Noun

ravine (plural ravines)

1. A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.

Derived terms

• ravine-buck
• ravined
• ravine-deer

Related terms

• ravinement

Translations

See also

• canyon
• gorge
• gulley, gully
• valley

Etymology 2

From Middle English ravene, ravine, from Old French raviner (“rush, seize by force”), itself from ravine (“rapine”), from Latin rap?na (“plundering, loot”), itself from rapere (“seize, plunder, abduct”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æv?n/

Noun

ravine (plural ravines)

1. (archaic) Alternative form of raven (“rapine, rapacity; prey, plunder”)
   • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H.:

     And he, shall he,
     Man, her last work, who seem’d so fair, […]
     Who trusted God was love indeed
     And love Creation’s final law—
     Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
     With ravine, shriek’d against his creed—
     Who loved, who suffer’d countless ills,
     Who battled for the True, the Just,
     Be blown about the desert dust,
     Or seal’d within the iron hills?

Further reading

• ravine on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• ravines on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• ravine at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Averni, Erivan, naiver, naïver, vainer

French

Etymology

From the Old French verb raviner (“flow with force; sweep down; pillage, cascade”), or from the noun ravine, raveine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rap?na. Doublet of rapine, a borrowing from the same Latin term.

Pronunciation

• Homophones: ravinent, ravines

Noun

ravine f (plural ravines)

1. A small ravine or gully.
2. Beginning of a furrowing or formation of a ravine.

Related terms

• ravin
• raviner
• ravinement

Verb

ravine

1. first-person singular present indicative of raviner
2. third-person singular present indicative of raviner
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of raviner
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of raviner
5. second-person singular imperative of raviner

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French ravine, from Latin rap?na.

Noun

ravine m (definite singular ravinen, indefinite plural raviner, definite plural ravinene)

1. gully (type of ravine)

References

• “ravine” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “ravine” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French ravine, from Latin rap?na.

Noun

ravine m (definite singular ravinen, indefinite plural ravinar, definite plural ravinane)

1. gully (type of ravine)

References

• “ravine” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Etymology

From French crevasse. Doublet of crevice.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æs
• IPA^(key): /k???væs/

Noun

crevasse (plural crevasses)

1. A crack or fissure in a glacier or snowfield; a chasm.
2. (US) A breach in a canal or river bank.
3. (by extension) Any cleft or fissure.
   • 2010, Scott R. Riley, A Lost Hero Found (page 111)

     I moved my left hand to the small of her back, just above her belt-line and stroked the peach fuzz in her crevasse with my fingers.

4. (figuratively) A discontinuity or “gap” between the accounted variables and an observed outcome.
   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 105 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     […] he laments that he can find no physiological phenomenon answering to his subject’s winning a race, or losing it. Between his terminal output of energy and his victory or defeat there is a mysterious crevasse. Physiology is baffled.

Translations

Verb

crevasse (third-person singular simple present crevasses, present participle crevassing, simple past and past participle crevassed)

1. (intransitive) To form crevasses.
2. (transitive) To fissure with crevasses.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.vas/
• Rhymes: -as

Etymology 1

Old French crevace, crever +? -asse

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. crevasse

Etymology 2

Inflected forms

Verb

crevasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive of crever

Further reading

• “crevasse” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• crevassa (dated)

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. (glaciology) crevasse (a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field)